hgwellsfandomcom-20200214-history
Jack Griffin
Jack Griffin (The Invisible Man) Jack Griffin was a young man with albinism who discovered the formula for invisibility. He performs it on himself, but when he can't reverse the process, he becomes an outcast and partially insane. ---- Jack comes close to a great scientific discovery at a college with Arthur Kemp. But he distrusts his colleages and leaves the university for an apartment so he can ensure that he gets all of the credit. Low on finances, he robs his father, causing him to commit suicide. Through what little is given about Griffin's family it is obvious that it was dysfuctional. Becoming hermit-like, he invents a formula that changes the refractive index of objects to match that of air, which makes them invisible. He intended from the start to become invisible himself, but when his landlord starts to question his activities, he has to rush his experiments. He becomes invisible to escape the landlord and burns down the building to cover his tracks. He ends up being alone and invisible, and walking around London struggling to survive without being discovered. He steals some clothes from a theatre shop and wraps his head in bandages to conceal his invisibility. He starts living at the The Coach and Horses Inn in Iping to try and reverse his experiment, but his appearance disturbs the locals, and they become suspicious. This interferes with his progress and he is unable to pay his rent to the Halls. To pay the bills he robs the house of Reverend Bunting, which causes the police to pursue him, which forces him to reveal his invisibility to everyone before escaping. He is now insane thanks to his inability to reverse his experiment, and soon forces a tramp named Thomas Marvel to assist him by carrying his money, but Thomas runs off. Jack chases him to Port Burdock, and accidentally finds his previous college acquaintance Dr. Kemp. He tries to recruit Kemp as his partner, but the doctor instead alerts Colonel Adye, of the police squad. Enraged and thinking of world domination, Jack decides to kill Kemp to set an example. He fails when the townspeople rally around Kemp, who mob Griffin as soon as his location is discovered. Death causes the invisibility to wear off, and Griffin's body is seen. Appearances #Jack originally appeared in the book The Invisible Man (book) by H.G. Wells. He was only identified as Griffin. #In the 1933 film based on the movie, he is first given the name Jack. He was depicted by Claude Rains. In the film he and Dr. Kemp work for Dr. Cranley, a food preservationist. He is also the fiancee of Dr, Cranley's daughter, Flora. He experiments with the drug monocane, hoping to become rich and famous so he could please Flora. He discovers that when mixed with some other chemicals, monocane could render a person invisible. He is too excited to think clearly, and tries it on himself. It is a success, but it is not until afterwards that Jack thought about reversing the effect. The movie version of Griffin is far more likable than the book version. In the book he is represented as a tyrannical madman to the end, while in the movie he eventually sees the error of his ways. #In the comic series The League of Extraordinary Gentleman by Alan Moore, there is an invisible man named Hawley Griffin (His first name is a reference to Hawley Crippen). It is explained that Jack Griffin was simply a guinea pig for Hawley, who performed the invisibility formula on him so he could escape Rosa Coote's boarding school. After he assaults Mina Murray he is raped and killed by Mister Hyde. In the film version, his name is changed to Rodney Skinner due to copyright issues, and he is played by Tony Curran. His changed name is explained by the fact that Rodney is a thief who stole the invisibility formula from Jack Griffin. #Chevy Chase plays a doctor who becomes invisible through an industrial accident in Memoirs of an Invisible Man, a parody of the story. His colleauges quickly begin trying to cover-up the incident to avoid allegations about the several safety violations that caused it. The Invisible Man eventually 'gets the girl' and reveals the faults of his coworkers. The title of the movie and a few plot elements come from a book by H.F. Saint, even though the book is not comedic.